Ontario and Saskatchewan Have Added 400,000 Jobs

According to the most recent data, both job openings and payroll employment remained elevated in September, while the unemployment rate fell.

The total number of available jobs in Canada increased by 3.8% in September, to 994,800. Ontario and Saskatchewan saw the greatest increases in employment.

There is still a need to hire new workers as the job

vacancy rate (the number of open jobs as a percentage of total job openings) has risen to 5.7%.

Although September is traditionally a month with many job openings due to seasonal factors, this does not explain why Canada has so many of them.

Where did you find the most openings for employment?

According to Statistics Canada, a position is considered open if all of the following conditions are met: (1) the position exists; (2) work could begin within 30 days; and (3) the employer is actively seeking workers from outside the organization to fill the position.

In this setting, a number of fields remained with unusually high rates of unfilled positions.

Providing Medical and Social Aid Services

In September, there were a record-breaking 159,500 openings in the health care and social assistance industries, up from the previous record-high of 151,500 openings in August.

The continued high demand for professionals in this sector (including doctors, nurses, physicians, surgeons, etc.) after the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 25% year-over-year increase in job vacancies in the industry.

In order to deal with labor shortages, Canada has taken measures to entice more professionals in this sector to immigrate to the country, including removing barriers to permanent residence (PR) for professionals in this sector.

Lodging and food

As of September, there were 152,400 unfilled positions in the ever-demanding labor, housing, and food services industry, a 12% increase from the previous month.

The return to pre-pandemic business and social protocols has helped this industry see growth in hiring, and employment; this is a promising sign for the future of the sector, as vacancies and employment have remained high all year.

Retail trade

In September, there were 117,300 vacancies in retail, a marginal increase from the previous month. Indicative of sustained demand for labor, the 5.5% job vacancy rate is comparable to the national average across all industries.

Professional scientific and technical services

There has also been a consistent demand for workers in the field of professional scientific and technical services, which is a broad category that includes fields like law, accounting, architecture, engineering, computer systems design, management consulting, advertising, public relations, and many others.

The vacancy rate in the industry is 5%, which is consistent with the national average and a good indicator of continued demand and hiring efforts here in the coming months, as reported in the September report (61,900 vacancies).

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the only sector where job openings have consistently decreased, dropping from a high of 92,100 in August to 76,000 in September.

While this might seem like good news for potential new hires, it actually follows the fourth monthly drop in RGDP over the preceding five months. Real gross domestic product (RGDP) is a price index-adjusted measure of the total market value of an economy’s output.

Consequently, the decline in job openings in this area is probably closely related to the overall industry’s contraction.

Pay raises: a word to the wise

The number of people on an employer’s payroll is the same as the number of people who are receiving some form of compensation from that employer.

Payroll employment is often taken as an indicator of the health of a company, industry, or even the economy as a whole, despite the fact that increases in these figures can be attributable to a variety of factors (such as filling previously unfilled positions).

In September, Canada saw a rise of 0.5% in payroll employment, with increases particularly notable in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta.

• A total of 20,700 new jobs were created in the healthcare and social assistance sector, while 8,400 new jobs were created in the accommodation and food services sector, and 8,200 new jobs were created in the retail trade sector.

The fact that job openings increased across the board in these three sectors bodes well for workers in those fields. When we compare this data to the RGDP of each sector in August, we find that all three of these areas have seen increases in the following:

• the number of job openings
• the number of people added to payroll
• and the value of goods and services produced.

As Canada exits pandemic protocols and returns to pre-pandemic levels of economic output, these are encouraging signs.

Canada has an unprecedented number of open positions

To this day, immigration remains a primary strategy for addressing labor shortages.

As more and more of Canada’s aging population enters retirement age, the federal government and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) have taken steps to address the country’s impending labor shortage.

Canada plans to address labor shortages by bringing in more immigrants from other countries, as evidenced by its aggressive immigration strategy to welcome nearly 500,000 newcomers to Canada annually and its expansion of economic immigration pathways like Express Entry and the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP).